Recommended Reading

Explore my Goodreads Lists

Explore some of what I've read, what's on my TBR list and the types of things that interest me on Goodreads!

   If you are here it's because you love to read and you love books. I have loved books since the day I picked up my first for-pleasure book - one of the many Tom Swift books by Victor Appleton. A whole new world was opened to me, worlds beyond this one - even if the stories were set on this world.
   Over the years I have read and enjoyed books from almost every conceivable genre - Fantasy to Historical Fiction, Thriller to Biography, Middle-Grade to Poetry. Often the book we choose to read is indicative of the times in which we read it.
   I picked up the original Tom Swift at 12 because I was grounded from all fun (my parents clever way to encourage me to read, I think). I read the Western focused The Walking Drum because it was literally the only book I had available in the moment. Dune was a gift, All Quiet on the Western Front was an assignment, The Stand was because I wanted an epic read and Ender's Game was because my best friend at the time threatened to give me a black eye if I didn't remember that the enemy gate was always down.
   Not every book I've ever read was one of the greats. As a matter of fact I find myself at odds with friends on what books are classified as one of "the greats". I have reread some of those books on the lists and there are times I finish and think - "well, that's x hours of my life I can't get back."

   It should go without saying (but I will say it anyway), that my list of "greats" is highly personal. If you don't agree, that's totally ok. If you haven't read something on my list I would, of course, encourage you to give the story a try, even if it's outside your normal comfort zone. I'd love to hear your opinions on any of these books. Feel free to drop me an email!
   Finally, I will add to this list on occasion so feel free to check back periodically for more!

Fifteen-year-old Dillon thought he was free. He had family, friends, and a strong religious community. But when a secret threatens to blow up his life, Dillon runs away. Little does he know of a world much larger than he ever imagined. Starting out on a bike, he finds his way to Sydney, a city of dreams ... and nightmares.

Needing money to survive, Dillon is lured to The Wall where strangers pay for young, pretty boys. Accepting his fate in the urban jungle, Dillon forges new friendships in a scene he can barely comprehend. Yet for every new friend there are enemies, not least a mysterious killer targeting vulnerable young men. Faced with decisions well beyond his years, Dillon must choose who to help, or who to defy.

In a race against his past, Dillon faces pitfalls that threaten his very life. And yet if he remains hidden until he's eighteen, he might find the one thing that truly matters - the freedom to be anything he wants.

All the Pretty Boys

Jay Castelletti

A good, if unusual read

Told in a mixture of third and first person, the story of Dillon is both fun and sad. His harrowing dash from Perth to Sydney, his relationships with Amy, Pastor Pete, wonderful Dixie, and Stephen, and his sheer will to be his authentic self.

This story was worth the telling and the reading. Don't miss All the Pretty Boys!

My thoughts on All the Pretty Boys...
(review on Goodreads & Amazon)

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Dean O’Donnell is a wallflower with a secret and a voice that could steal the show. Preferring to blend into the background at his high school, his world tilts on its axis when he is chosen for a major solo in the upcoming Christmas choir performance. His quiet life is further disturbed when he receives a Secret Santa gift, and an unexpected friendship forms.

Ben Hunter is the boy next door, well-liked but lonely. He wrestles with unspoken feelings for Dean and a family crisis that’s tearing him apart. When he takes a job at the local cinema to help his family out of a desperate situation, his academic life begins to crumble under the strain. But that’s the least of his worries.

As the holiday season unfolds, so do their feelings for each other. But with Dean’s anxiety escalating, and Ben’s life turning more chaotic, their differences seem more apparent than ever. Can they navigate their personal challenges and embrace the feelings growing between them? Or will this winter be the season of missed chances and what-ifs?

Snow Boys

Simon Doyle

Snow Boys is my first read from Simon Doyle and I had no expectations going in. I‘ll admit that I purchased the Kindle edition based on the title, the genre and the cover alone. I didn’t even read the blurb. I needed a book to read and this one appeared on my Amazon radar for some reason.

To say I enjoyed this is an understatement to the highest degree. From the first paragraph Doyles' prose grabbed me, slapped me, and demanded to be appreciated. “Mum used to say, ‘It only rained twice this week. First for three days, then for four days.’” I laughed out loud and I loved it. Doyles' ability to turn a phrase had me in love with his prose so much that I immediately ordered Snow Boys in paperback for my shelf, as well as Runaway Train for my upcoming read!

Speaking of ‘in love’, that’s what happened as I got to know Dean and Ben. Two very different boys with two very similar problems – both liked boys, and neither was ready for that to be known.

Coming out stories aren’t new, but Simon Doyle makes it feel new with expertly drawn characters, tightly plotted storylines and strong dialogue. I encourage you to pick this book up in your favorite format (or go crazy and get it in all three!) and bundle up with your favorite blanket as you get to know Ben, Dean and even the prick Alex in Snow Boys!

My thoughts on Snow Boys...
(review on Goodreads & Amazon)

Genres

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card

Genres

My thoughts on Ender's Game... (review on Goodreads)

Along with Herbert's Dune novel, I consider Ender's Game to be the greatest Sci-Fi novel of all time.

Two completely different styles but two equally compelling stories.

Ender's Game (for me) explores humanity and the lengths we will go to in order to survive, leaving us with the unanswered (and possibly unanswerable) question of, do we deserve to survive if we are willing to do anything to survive.

Ender remains, for me, one of the most compelling characters in all of literature - and most relatable. Each time I read this novel (and I've easily read this novel at least 10 times since I discovered it in 1998) I experience Ender's journey as I do with very few other characters. I celebrate victories with him, I cry with him, I fear with him, and I experience the horror, disgust, and regret with him in the end when truths are revealed.

If you've seen the movie - disregard it. Pick up this novel and read it right now!

And remember... The enemies gate is always down.

Frank Herbert

Dune

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the "spice" melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for...

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul's family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

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My thoughts on Dune... (review on Goodreads)

How do you write a review of the greatest science fiction story ever written? The world building is unparalleled - rich in detail, dripping with politics, relevant in ecology, and brimming with contrasts. Herbert's characters leap off the page they are so clearly and well drawn.

Quite frankly, this book is a true "must read" for any fan of literature. If you haven't read Dune then you can't call yourself a fan of science-fiction and you can't be a serious reader of top tier writing.

I first read this as a teen way back in 1984. I loved it then, and have reread the book (and the series) at least five times in the decades since. If you are hoping for hard-science Sci-fi in this novel you'll be disappointed. Herbert isn't overly interested in exploring how folding space actually works, or what caused, or how to solve the ecological issues on the planet Dune. Instead Herbert delves into political power struggles, Machiavellian plots, and religions effects on society, among other themes. Herbert's writing isn't for the faint of heart, often complex and verbose.

Dune is a complex character and societal drama not a story about hardware.

All that said, it's still not to be missed.

Anne Rice

Cry to Heaven

Anne Rice brings to life the exquisite and otherworldly society of the eighteenth-century castrati, the delicate and alluring male sopranos whose graceful bodies and glorious voices brought them the adulation of the royal courts and grand opera houses of Europe, men who lived as idols, concealing their pain as they were adored as angels, yet shunned as half-men.
As we are drawn into their dark and luminous story, as the crowds of Venetians, Neopolitans, and Romans, noblemen and peasants, musicians, prelates, princes, saints, and intriguers swirl around them, Anne Rice brings us into the sweep of eighteenth-century Italian life, into the decadence beneath the shimmering surface of Venice, the wild frivolity of Naples, and the magnetic terror of its shadow, Vesuvius.

My thoughts on Cry to Heaven...

Cry to Heaven was not my first foray into the worlds of Anne Rice. I had read many of her Vampire books, as well as her Feast of All Saints. While Cry is not perfect in it's construction, tending toward the melodramatic and the overuse of foreshadowing, I felt that this story was briming with intelligence, history, and sexual tension. I found the characters to be exceedingly well-drawn and their stories compelling and emotional. I found Cry to Heaven to be far more important entry into Rice's oeuvre than any of her Vampire or Witches books (many of which are dang good stories).

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